COUNCIL FACES £700,000 BILL

CRUMBRIA: 09.06.2026

LABOUR-DAFT Crumberland Council faces an eye-watering bill of at least £726,000 just to have last year’s accounts checked.

Not because the battered books are in rude health.

Because they are such a pig to untangle.

Outside auditors have warned the Council that their audit bill could climb beyond £726,000 because the accounts are liable to prove a haystack bristling with rusty needles. The bill last year was a mere £170,000.

Despite attending yesterday’s meeting and reading the report, the News & Shrug missed this huge tab awaiting Taxpayers.

Instead, the tanking Carlisle tabloid ran the Council a warm bubble bath, applied nail varnish to its tootsies and called it journalism.

The paper has today published a long, beige write-up about the marvellous possibility that the Council might sign-off its 2025-26 accounts early.

The massive bill was not mentioned.

Only small town hacks could stare at a six-figure tab and come away purring about a deadline the Council has not yet met.

The “early” sign-off of the accounts is only guaranteed if Crumberland Council produces paperwork the auditors can actually trust.

And as the News & Shrug knows only too well, the Council’s previous track record in this regard is lamentable.

So if the job gets messier, the bill could get bigger.

Clearing up the terrible stench of the rotting legacy accounts from the former councils has not been a roaring success story for the new unitary.

The committee allegedly in charge has seen a revolving door of Labour councillors in the chair. The last was ushered aside last autumn after surviving six months in the stocks.

The Council drafted in an unelected independent troubleshooter from outside to get the train back on the tracks.

About all these manouverings, the uninquisitive News & Shrug continues to act like a rabbit hypnotised by a snake.

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READ it & weep: Auditors’ hopes for Cumberland Accounts

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